Hidden from tourist mobs in Italy’s northeast corner, tiny Friuli-Venezia Giulia boasts one of the country’s most distinctive regional cuisines. With influences from Austria, Hungary, and Slovenia, the Friulian people cleverly merge humble, local ingredients with exotic spices from foreign lands, resulting in a cuisine that, while often surprising in its blend of sweet and savory flavors, never ceases to delight the palate.

In Flavors of Friuli: A Culinary Journey through Northeastern Italy, Elisabeth Antoine Crawford has compiled eighty of Friuli’s traditional recipes—including frico (Montasio cheese crisps), cjalsòns (cinnamon-laced ravioli), and gubana (dried fruit and nut spiral cake)—and presents them with clear instructions that any home cook can easily follow. Much more than a cookbook, Flavors of Friuli explores the region’s history and intermingling of cultures that have contributed over centuries to its unique fusion of cuisines. Readers will experience Friuli through the eyes of a traveler, visiting food festivals, favorite local restaurants, and not-to-be-missed tourist sights.

Explore Friuli’s three distinct geographical areas—the Northern mountains, the Central hills and plains, and the Southern coastline—each with its own particular character and culinary traditions. From Carnia’s sweet-and-savory cjalsòns and crispy frico to Cividale’s dried fruit- and nut-filled gubana to the seafood, goulasch, and Viennese-inspired pastries of Trieste, there is something to entice everyone’s palate.

Travel through Friuli’s charming villages, including Bordano, home to Europe’s largest tropical butterfly garden; Aquileia, famous for the ancient Roman mosaics that adorn the town’s basilica; and Sauris, where time stands eternally still amid verdant Alpine peaks. Visit popular restaurants such as Osteria Al Vecchio Stallo in Udine, Ristorante Salon in Arta Terme, and La Subida in Cormòns, as well as one of Trieste’s oldest bakeries, Pasticceria Penso.

Discover Friuli’s many artisanal products, including Montasio and ricotta affumicata cheeses, Illy coffee, Tocai and other wines of the Collio, and of course, the famed prosciutto of San Daniele. Experience local festivals that celebrate wild berries, mushrooms, asparagus, and pumpkin, then revel in Muggia’s eccentric Carnevale parade. Learn about spice merchants called cramârs, folkloric sbilfs who inhabit Carnia’s forests, and the nearly obsolete Furlan language still spoken in Friuli’s remotest corners.

Flavors of Friuli is beautifully illustrated with 450 color photographs, including one for each recipe. The book offers a magnificent voyage through the snow-capped mountains of Carnia, the rolling hills of Friuli’s wine country, and the dramatic Adriatic coastline. Along the way, readers are invited to sneak a peek at life in small towns, admire the architecture in the cities of Trieste and Udine, and become enamored with the many irresistible flavors that Friuli–Venezia Giulia has to offer.